Star Trek Into Darkness: First reviews are in

We’ve been waiting for this moment for a long time now, and finally here it is. While the trade reviews aren’t in yet, apparently the very first reactions are out in the geek-o-sphere for Star Trek Into Darkness. So was it worth the wait?

Well, from what we can gather already, the reviews so far have been pretty good. Apparently the movie had its world premiere in Sydney, Australia, hence the flood of early reviews.

IGN rated it 8 out of 10 and noted that Into Darkness "is a hell of a lot of fun, maintaining such constant velocity that by the time you’ve half-formed a criticism in your head it’s swept away by the next plot-twist or action sequence. It still has that urgency that made the first film so appealing, those big, optimistic messages of right vs wrong in a world at war."

The site Graffiti With Punctuation gave it 3.5 out of 5, still a good ranking, and wrote, "It’s a rousing adventure and Abrams has laid the platform for a healthy and long lasting franchise." Alright, sounds cool, no? At least so far there’s no reviews saying it screwed everything up past the post of oblivion.

At the same time, the site also felt, "This isn’t the franchise defining ‘middle’ picture that this reviewer was hoping it to be. It’s not the Empire Strikes Back of an Abrams trilogy; and consequently it didn’t quite hit the emotional crescendo of that kind of film." Not to mention that once again, there’s speculation as to the villain’s true identity, which tor.com tells us "can’t de discussed without including spoilers." (Yes, we read what it is, but we don’t know if it’s true or not. No, we won’t reveal it and spoil it for you.)

3News also felt that Into Darkness is, "As dark as it is, it’s fun," and compared this Trek to Iron Man, "a perfect blend of action, humanity and humor." So we also apparently have a darker Trek this time around, but not to the point where the fun and the humor’s been squeezed out.

Ultimately going through the reviews, you get the feeling it’s close to the first Abrams Trek without taking it too far beyond the first one, like Empire did with Star Wars, but as IGN tells us, it "does manage to solidify Star Trek as one of our most palatable blockbuster franchises moving forward." There has been one negative review so far, which we’ll currently take with a grain of salt, and we’ll go with the consensus so far. It doesn’t sound like the greatest sci-fi movie ever made, but it does sound like it delivers good fun and action if the positive reviews are to be believed.